World Cup Soccer: Italia '90 - Rerelease
Copyright/Publisher: Tronix/Virgin Mastertronic, Release Year: 1991,
Genre: Football/Soccer, Number Of Players: 1 or 2

Scoring an overgenerous 42% in Issue 63, World Cup Soccer - Italia '90 was the worst of several titles released to coincide with the 1990 World Cup finals. This one's so bad you'd have more fun kicking it round your bedroom than loading it up and playing it.

Although this was the OFFICIAL World Cup licence, no attempt was made to link it with the tournament itself - it doesn't include the real fixtures, you don't play against the proper teams, and you don't even get a full squad - instead, you play six-a-side football as England, Italy, Spain or Belgium against a succession of progressively better opponents, some of which weren't even in the World Cup finals! A two-player option is also available.

Change of view
The pitch is viewd from above, until a shot is taken when the perspective changes to 3-D, seen from either behind or in front of the goal. This is hellishly slow, and makes it very diffcult to save shots, especially for the player who has to suffer the 'up the goalie's bum' perspective. The teams don't change sides at half-time either!

When dribbling, the ball's glued to your foot until you welly it in the direction you're facing. As there's only one power setting available, intricate passing is impossible, so you end up just running at goal, even from your own six-yard box.

World Cup Soccer - Italia '90 is a travesty of a game, and has nothing at all to do with the World Cup. Save your pennies, there are much better football sims on the market.


INTRO SCREEN

OVERALL 37%